Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER UNIVERSITY MIKE BICKLE FORERUNNER STUDY TRACK: THE FORERUNNER MESSAGE IN ISAIAH 1-45 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 I. INTRODUCTION A. The context of this message is probably the Assyrian invasion of Judah around 701 BC. The Assyrian empire was the superpower of that day. Some see this as referring to the Babylon crisis. However, the promises in 40:1-2, 5 did not occur following the Babylon captivity. Isaiah gave Judah direction on how to respond to God in context to an international and national crisis. The historical context in which Isaiah is writing is the trauma of the crisis, because this is about responding to God in a place of international and national crisis. That is the backdrop of Isaiah 40. There is an international, national crisis going on. Of course, it is the same as every chapter it is the Assyrian empire. The Assyrian empire was the superpower of that day. For those who are with us for the first time, nobody uses that name the Assyrian empire today, but it is basically the Middle East: Syria, Iraq, Iran, some of those nations altogether. There were different combinations of them over the 300 years of the Assyrian empire connected to Isaiah s day. Then we have an outline here. You can look at that at your own. B. Outline for Isaiah 40 40:1-2 The call to comfort Jerusalem 40:3-5 The call to prepare the way of the Lord 40:6-8 God s plans, purposes, and promises will last forever 40:9-11 The mighty Warrior is a tender Shepherd 40:12-20 The Lord has all power and wisdom 40:21-26 The Lord has power over all the nations 40:27-31 Practical application: receiving strength C. Isaiah 40 has specific application to the time when Judah faced the Assyrian invasion (Isa ), when John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord, when the body of Christ has faced persecution throughout history, and when the Antichrist assaults Israel and the nations (Rev ). Isaiah 40 has specific applications. I am going to give four specific applications, and they are all related to a national crisis or a big event in salvation history or both together. The first application was in Isaiah s day when Judah was fearful, trembling in fear as the cruel superpower of Assyria was surrounding the country of Judah. Judah was a small country with Jerusalem in part of it. The Assyrians are threatening to destroy them. Isaiah was speaking about interacting with God and looking to God in this national crisis because fear was dominating the culture. Then the second application was a spiritual, dynamic, glorious event in salvation history, the coming of the Messiah, the first coming. John the Baptist was the Isaiah 40 messenger. The Roman empire was obviously crowding around the nation of Israel as well oppressing them, later to destroy them in AD 70. This was a great event in salvation history, the first coming of the Lord. Third, this chapter has been relevant throughout history, particularly when the Body of Christ or the Jewish nation has been under intense persecution. There are those seasons of persecution that are more intense than others. This chapter has been a lifesaver, giving strength and insight.

2 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 2 Fourth, though of course I believe the primary application of this chapter through these first three are completely important and valid, but there yet another crisis, there is yet another event in salvation history in which this chapter is going to have relevance in its fullest sense of the word. That is when the Antichrist empire is oppressing the nations of the earth and bearing down on Israel, seeking to completely exterminate and destroy Israel. The Body of Christ will be under severe persecution from the Antichrist empire. Messengers will go forth in the spirit of John the Baptist, proclaiming what is going on, why there is good news in the midst of the crisis, how we are supposed to respond to God, and what the big-picture story really, really is. So Isaiah 40 is a chapter for all of redemptive history from when Isaiah wrote it onward. It is a chapter particularly for the messengers in the generation the Lord returns. It is the diet that they will feed on. It is the diet they will feed the people of God on. This is the chapter that will make sense of things in a unique way. This is one of those unique chapters, Isaiah 40. D. Isaiah issued a twofold call to the Lord s messengers to comfort to Jerusalem (40:1-2) and to prepare the way of the Lord or to build a spiritual highway for the Lord by preparing people spiritually for the coming of the Lord (40:3-5). This twofold messenger calling is for any who will answer it. 1. The Holy Spirit is stirring people in this hour to answer the call to comfort Jerusalem and to prepare the way of the Lord by building a spiritual highway for the Lord. 2. The primary application of this calling is for messengers in the generation the Lord returns. In that time, the Antichrist will be oppressing the nations and seeking to destroy Israel. E. The Lord s messengers are exhorted to cry out four times in this chapter (40:2, 3, 6, 9). Ezekiel pointed out the responsibility to speak boldly after being commissioned to do so (Ezek. 33:1-10). 7 I have made you [Ezekiel] a watchman [messenger] you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die! and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. (Ezek. 33:6-9) II. MESSENGER CALL #1 TO COMFORT JERUSALEM (ISA. 40:1-2) A. The Lord s messengers are mandated to speak a message of God s comfort to Jerusalem (40:1-2). 1 Comfort, yes, comfort My people! Says your God. 2 Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD s hand double for all her sins. (Isa. 40:1-2) The chapter starts off very, very positively. It starts off with a call to comfort Jerusalem. The Lord s messengers are mandated, though it does not tell us who the Lord s messengers are. It is from God, calling people to take on this messenger role. The call is to whosoever will do it. It is a blanket call to be a messenger. There is a twofold mandate in Isaiah 40 for the messengers. The first one is to comfort Israel, to comfort Jerusalem. The second one, which we will look at in a few moments, is to build a spiritual highway for God and

3 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 3 for the people of God to interact with Him. So it is a twofold mandate for messengers. It is a whosoever will answer the calls. We are in an hour of history where the Spirit is visiting people in a really specific way, stirring them to answer the call, this twofold mandate to comfort Jerusalem and to build a spiritual highway. We will look at this a little bit more in detail. It starts in Isaiah 40:1, Comfort, yes, comfort. You feel the intensity and the urgency by the double imperative here. Comfort, yes, comfort My people, says your God. B. Speak comfort: The Lord commanded His messengers to comfort or strengthen Jerusalem (40:1). 1. There are two groups being addressed in Isaiah 40:1. The Lord commands the global body of Christ who love and listen to God (yet who are distinct from Jerusalem) to give a message of comfort to a group referred to as My people Jerusalem (who live in Jerusalem). The first group includes Gentiles believers speaking an end-time message of comfort to Jerusalem. That is an interesting phrase. If you look at that carefully, in verse 1 there are two groups of people. There are people of Jerusalem called My people, says the Lord. There is another group who love God; they are the messengers. They live outside of Jerusalem. They are distinct from Jerusalem because they are called to bring the message to Jerusalem, so it is not those living in Jerusalem. Thus there are two groups here. The second are not only but predominately Gentile believers across the earth, all across the nations, who are to take this calling as they answer the Spirit s call to be a messenger. 2. We see intensity and urgency in Isaiah s double imperative comfort, yes, comfort. 3. Isaiah comforted Israel with the truths found in 40:2, 5, 10-11, The full comfort of salvation is anchored in seeing the millennial and eternal aspects of the biblical narrative. This is the primary place of comfort to Israel, the Church, and the nations. 4. Paul comforted people with the truth of Jesus return and the resurrection (1 Thes. 4:16-18). 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive shall be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thes. 4:16-18) 5. Isaiah 40 is an exhortation to comfort and prepare people for the Lord by telling the whole story. It reveals the end of the story, our ministry focus, and God s character and power. C. God called Gentile believers in the ends of the world and in the chief of nations to comfort Israel. The messenger mandate to comfort Jerusalem is given to believers in the ends of the earth. Will you answer this call to proclaim God s message to Jerusalem (the daughter of Zion)? 11 Indeed the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the world: Say to the daughter of Zion, Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him (Isa. 62:11) There is a very specific calling upon Gentile believers to comfort Jerusalem in the generation the Lord returns. Now many Gentile believers love Jesus. Most believers, percent of them or whatever in the Body of Christ, are Gentiles. Most of them, however, are not connected to the biblical mandate to comfort Jerusalem.

4 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 4 Myself, when I first met Bob Jones, he told me, You are going to be involved in a ministry that is going to pray for Israel. He asked, Do you ever pray for Israel? I said, Never. Why? He looked at me and said, thirty-five years ago, This is going to be a lot of work. He went on, You don t know anything what I am talking about? I had never thought of Israel. Most of the people who come here come because they love the intercession, contending for revival, the intimacy-with-god message. I have heard the story over and over. They say, I did not get the Israel thing when I first got here. I have news for the whole Body of Christ right from the Bible: God is calling Gentile believers, anyone who will answer the call that they are to be messengers to comfort Jerusalem. It is a biblical, necessary mandate. We will get into why it is so critical that we do this. Look here in Isaiah 62:11, The Lord has proclaimed to the ends of the earth. That is to the Gentiles out there, by the way. He says, I am not talking to Jerusalem right now. I am talking to all the believers in the earth: tell Jerusalem this message. So the question you should be asking in your relationship with the Lord is Are you answering the call? Are you moving forward in that calling to say this message to Jerusalem or to Zion. Zion and Jerusalem can usually be used interchangeably. Tell the Jewish people in Israel, or the Jewish people in the nations, tell them their salvation is coming. The Messiah is coming back, and He is going to come with His rewards and His blessings. He is coming in days to come. We are to tell them that, then to break down a lot of the details that are implied with that. 1. The global body of Christ is to comfort and strengthen Jerusalem. They are to sing, boldly shout, and declare God s message of the salvation of Israel (Jer. 31:7-10). This message will be challenging to speak in context to the anti-semitism in the end times. Many Gentile believers love Jesus, but are not yet connected to the biblical mandate to comfort Jerusalem. 7 Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel! 10 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock. (Jer. 31:7-10) Here in Jeremiah 31 it calls out the Gentiles again. Sing with gladness for Jacob that means Israel shout among the chief of the nations. So in the chief of the nations, here is what you are to do: you are to say, O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel. So the believers, among the chief of the nations, are to enter into this partnership with God, crying out to God to save the remnant of Israel. They do not just pray for Israel; that is verse 7. Verse 10, O nations, make the message clear. Do not just pray for Israel. Proclaim the message. Become a messenger. Tell them in even the far away, distant places, not just in the major cities. Go to the most remote island. The message must go global. The Holy Spirit is calling Gentile believers to answer the messenger calling. It is a messenger calling. Again, it is twofold here in Isaiah 40. Number one to comfort Jerusalem, and number two to build a spiritual highway which we will look at in just a moment. So as a body of believers, we want to answer that call because when we look this Jeremiah passage, and we say, Okay, that looks good, it s the context of Jeremiah 31 which we will get to in our next semester in the spring it is this global antisemitism against Israel. So when you are reading it, you may say, Well, sure! I will say, Save Israel. I will say, He that scattered Israel will gather,

5 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 5 Jeremiah 31:10. I will say that. Well, the environment is going to become far more hostile in terms of antisemitism, and it will be far more costly to say this message. Right now a few people in the nations will get bothered, but you give it some more years and this is going to be a very, very costly message to be true to. So, it is the sort of thing you want to set your heart now for it. You want to search it out in the Scriptures now. I do not want to get in the hour of intense pressure and then start figuring out if it is even in the Bible that I am supposed to take a stand. Because, if you are under intense pressure, you will find Bible verses to get you off the hook. When you are in a time before the pressure intensifies, and you see it clearly, you are quite a bit more objective because you are loving God and you are reading it. You are saying, Yeah. You get your heart rooted, then when the pressure intensifies you cannot cast it off. A lot of folks wait until pressured, but then under the pressure they cannot quite see the verses clearly, though they are supposed to take a stand. So as a community of believers, we are wanting to be intentional about understanding these things now before things really heat up. 2. God is calling anyone who will answer the call to be a messenger to comfort Israel. 3. Her warfare is ended: Comfort Jerusalem, assuring her that her military conflict will end. This will only be fulfilled when Jesus returns and puts an end to warfare in the earth (2:4). Jerusalem s warfare did not end after the Jewish exiles returned from the Babylonian captivity in 538 BC. Her warfare has continued Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 and there have been attacks against Israel throughout history and even more will come by the Antichrist. 4 He [Jesus] shall judge between the nations they shall beat their swords into plowshares, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isa. 2:4) Now the message we are to speak is in verse 2. Speak comfort to Jerusalem. Speak comfort to Jerusalem, cry out to her. Tell her this, the military warfare against her, the hostility of nations that has continually come against her, is ended. For nearly 4,000 years since Abraham, there has been hostility against Israel. Tell her it is over because Jesus has come and the millennial kingdom has started. That is the reason it is over. There is a day when there is no more military conflict, no more political intrigue with nations. 4. Her iniquity is pardoned: Comfort Jerusalem by crying out to her that her sin is forgiven. The Lord can only give a full pardon to Jerusalem and others because Jesus took the penalty for our sin by shedding His own blood and in bearing the wrath of God on the cross (Isa. 53). Tell her, number two, her sin is totally forgiven. For all of her apostasy and rebellion, God has completely forgiven her sin. 5. Double portion: Jerusalem will receive a double portion of grace and honor in the Millennium (61:7). Jesus will sit on His throne, and the New Jerusalem will descend there. 7 Instead of your shame you shall have double honor they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs. (Isa. 61:7) Tell her, number three, she is going to have double honor and double glory and double grace. Even in the context of all of her sin, God is going to give her double glory and double grace. Now some folks think that she is going to get double penalty. Isaiah goes on later to develop the idea of the double portion. He says in Isaiah 61 that he is talking to Jerusalem, Instead of your shame you will have double honor. This is when the Lord

6 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 6 comes, in the Millennium. When the Lord comes and looks at Jerusalem, He will say, I am going to give you double grace, double forgiveness, double honor, double favor in the nations. I am going to put that upon you now that your King is in place in Jerusalem. You are going to possess double of everything nearly. That is what it says here in Isaiah 61:7. a. The glory of God will be openly manifested in Jerusalem (60:1-3). 1 Arise, shine; for the glory of the LORD is risen upon you [Jerusalem]. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isa. 60:1-3) b. Jerusalem will be praised by all nations as the joy of the earth (Isa. 62:7). Jerusalem will be the city that most people in the nations will visit with great joy. 7 And give Him no rest till He establishes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Isa. 62:7) You know, it goes on in Isaiah 62 and says that the intercessors are going to cry out until Jerusalem is a praise in the earth. Well, right now Jerusalem is being mocked in the earth. It is going to become more hostile the closer we get to the Lord s return. The closer we get to the Lord s return, the less Jerusalem will be praised in the earth. The more they will be hated in the earth. There will be a sudden reversal when the Lord Jesus comes and sets up His throne in Jerusalem. All the nations will want to go to Jerusalem, the number one city of the earth, because the glory of God will be there, and the throne of Jesus, and the New Jerusalem coming down, and the city of the great King from Psalm 48 all there in Jerusalem. The whole earth will be saying that Jerusalem is the praise, the place to go. It will be the number one visitor place forever in history. It will be Jerusalem. It will be praised worldwide, and that is part of the double honor that is coming to Jerusalem. c. Mount Zion or Jerusalem will be the joy of the earth (Ps. 48:1-2). 2 the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion the city of the great King. (Ps. 48:2) III. MESSENGER CALL #2 THE CALL TO PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD (ISA. 40:3-5) A. The Lord s messengers will comfort Jerusalem (40:1). 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; 5 the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together (Isa. 40:3-5) Let s look at preparing the way of the Lord. I want you to catch this again; this is the second mandate, because the first mandate is to comfort Jerusalem as a messenger. The second mandate is to prepare for the Lord s coming to the earth. So that is the twofold mandate. The call to messengers was to whomever would answer it. There was nobody in particular. I guess in Isaiah s day it would have been Isaiah and his disciples who are identified a bit in Isaiah 8. He had a team of people that he was discipling in the things of God. They were reading the Word and studying it. Undoubtedly, they were answering the call to be messengers to prepare for what was coming.

7 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 7 B. A mysterious call went forth to prepare a highway in the desert for the Lord to come to Jerusalem (40:3-4). In the ancient world, a city would build a special road to welcome a visiting king. The desert was a place where there were many rough places and obstacles in building such a highway. We know that there is a global dimension to this. Nobody in Isaiah s day, nobody knew there was a John the Baptist coming 700 years later. It was just left wide open. There is a voice. Nobody knows who that voice is. He is crying in the wilderness. Nobody knows when. It would be 700 years after Isaiah. He is saying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for God. That is a mysterious command. Make a highway in the desert? Nobody makes a highway in the desert, by the way, because it is far more costly and takes far more work. There are many more obstacles in the desert than there are in a city to building a highway. The idea here is that when a king or a royal family, a monarch, a dignitary would visit a city, the city would make preparations. It is like when the Olympics is going to be in a city, and for four or five or eight years they are building up the city for the grand event of the Olympics. Well, when the word came that the emperor was visiting your city, which would happen maybe once in 100 years, they would get the notice and take the next year or two or however much time they had to build up a highway so that they could have a procession for the emperor to come in. They had to move all the obstacles out of the way. That is kind of the backdrop, the context. Here it is really strange and mysterious. They are building a highway for God. Well, God does not march on a highway. There are no obstacles we need to move out of the way for God to walk on a highway. I mean He created the heavens and the earth. This is a bit cryptic and mysterious. Of course, when you get all the passages together, it is a spiritual highway of truth. That is what John the Baptist said, as we find in John 1, I am that voice at the first coming. I am building a highway, but it is a highway of truth. It is a spiritual highway. Now do not be confused because there are about ten other passages in Isaiah maybe eight or nine, not quite ten where there is going to be a physical highway built related to the second coming of Christ. That is another subject for another time. We have mentioned that a little bit over the weeks. There is a physical highway being built from Egypt to Assyria. This massive highway going into Jerusalem is physical, and it is for all the refugees and everybody making pilgrimages to Jerusalem to go on that highway. Here it is a spiritual highway. Isaiah is the only one who actually develops this highway theology. When you read it, at first you wonder, Is this the spiritual highway of truth or is this a physical highway with construction and technology? Which one is it? Well, clearly this one here is a spiritual highway. The premise is that it is a highway for God. What it means: God does not need a highway, but one of the fundamental principles of the kingdom is that God says, as it were, I will release My glory through My people. I will only release it through My people when they are in agreement with Me. So the highway is a highway of truth. It is a highway that tells God s values and tells God s plans. It is a highway that is proclaiming ideas: God s values and God s end-time plans. When God s people understand them, and they agree with them, they come into agreement and the Lord would say, In that agreement is the highway My power and purposes will be released through. It is a spiritual highway. That is what John the Baptist was building, a spiritual highway. He was getting the people of Israel to see the truth about who the Messiah was and to repent of compromise and wrong attitudes, so they could be a part of partnering with the Lord. So, it was a spiritual highway that John the Baptist was building. Isaiah goes on here, Every valley shall be exalted; every mountain will be brought low. Every crooked place made straight, and every rough place made smooth. Here is the really important point to note, verse 5: the glory of the Lord will be seen by the whole world together. When it says, all flesh will see the glory, they are

8 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 8 not talking about a figurative by faith I think I see His glory; I sense that He is important so I saw His glory in that limited sense. That is actually true, but this is not what Isaiah 40:5 is talking about. There is a day when the Messiah, the Bridegroom King, will come on the sky we all know it in flaming fire, in the glory of the Father. Every single eye will see Him, it says it three times. Every eye will see Him in the planet. That is what Isaiah 40:5 is talking about. So Isaiah could say to John the Baptist 700 years later, You can borrow this verse, but it is bigger than you. It is for a timeframe beyond you. It is for a timeframe when every single human being, every eye, will see the glory of God. Everyone will. He will come back again in flaming fire, the glory of the Father, with all the angels, all the saints caught up to meet Him in the air, and nobody will miss it. It will be the critical moment of human history in salvation history. So Isaiah is anchoring this whole messenger calling into an end-time scenario here in verse 5. Yes, he would say to the people of his day, Yes, we are going to comfort Jerusalem and tell them of the great promises that are coming. Yes, we will cover Jerusalem in our day, but there is a day when this will have a global dimension of fullness. John the Baptist, you can borrow that verse and fulfill it a little bit when you introduce the first coming of the Lord. That was so significant. Jesus said John was the greatest man ever born of a woman. His unique calling preparing the first coming of the Lord, the importance, and the value, and the sacredness of that calling cannot be over-exaggerated. I want you to see in verse 5, this calling is anchored in an end-of-the-age, eschatological context. It is a messenger calling for a time even beyond John s. 1. It was a bit mysterious why would the Creator need people to remove obstacles in order to build a special highway for Him? There are no obstacles that can stop Him (40:12-26). 2. The prophecy of the Lord building a highway is unique to Isaiah. He made at least seven references to this millennial highway (Isa. 11:16; 19:23; 35:8; 40:3; 49:11; 57:14; 62:10). C. Highway for God: It s a highway for God or one that serves God s purposes by preparing people either to walk with God spiritually (before Jesus second coming) or to come to Him in Jerusalem physically (after Jesus second coming). The main idea here is not in building a physical highway for Jesus procession into Jerusalem. He comes up to Jerusalem through Bozrah (Isa. 63:1-6). 1. A physical highway: After Jesus returns, He will cause a physical highway to Jerusalem to be built. This highway will serve different purposes such as facilitating Jewish refugees in returning to Israel, Gentiles making pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3; Zech. 14:16-19), and helping people who travel from Egypt to Assyria to serve the Lord together (Isa. 19:23). The bowl judgments (earthquakes, large hailstones, etc.) will destroy many roads to Israel. 2. A spiritual highway: Before Jesus return, the Holy Spirit will raise up messengers who will prepare people spiritually for His coming by equipping them to walk with God (40:3-5). 3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3) God called it a highway for God in verse 3. We already covered this, but I just want you to get it again, because God will only manifest His glory in a consistent way through people as they agree with Him. They agree in two ways. They agree with His values. We call that purity or generosity or humility or righteousness. We agree with His values so we repent of compromise and wrong attitudes. We embrace His values, because the Lord would

9 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 9 say, I am not going to use you in a consistent way if you do not agree with My values. Again humility, generosity, purity, love, righteousness, justice, those normal kingdom values. There is another thing that the people are to agree with: His plans. Not just being humble and generous, but grasping what He is doing in His global, eschatological unfolding of His plans to drive evil off the planet and replace every single evil leader on the planet with a new leader, completely have a new world order. Literally in one day He is going to shift it all. They are to agree with that. a. A basic kingdom principle is that God releases His power through people who walk in agreement with His values and plans they participate in releasing His glory, instead of drawing back in compromise, fear, or offense. b. The forerunner message prepares people to walk in agreement with the Lord s values and plans so that they can participate with Him in releasing His glory in context to the unique dynamics of the generation the Lord returns. D. The call to prepare people spiritually to receive the Lord by making straight a spiritual highway of truth for God is applicable at His first and second comings. This includes calling people to repent and agree with God s values and plan. Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isa. 40:3) 1. John the Baptist prepared people spiritually for Jesus coming (Lk. 3). There are two passages that prophesied his ministry Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 (Mk. 1:2-3). 2. John the Baptist made straight a spiritual highway of truth by preaching repentance and preparing people for God. He did not prepare a physical highway. He focused on changing people, not the topography to build a physical highway 3. After Jesus returns, a physical highway will be built (Isa. 11:16; 19:23; 35:8; 40:3; 57:14; 62:10). The physical highway is not the main emphasis in 40:3-4. E. The message of John the Baptist: John modeled the way to prepare a spiritual highway for the Lord. He emphasized a twofold message calling people to repent (to agree with God s values) and announcing Jesus coming (to agree with God s plans that are associated with Jesus coming). 3 And he went preaching a baptism of repentance 4 as it is written in Isaiah saying: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled and every mountain brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Lk. 3:3-6) John the Baptist modeled the way to prepare a spiritual highway. Again, there will be a physical highway too, so do not lose sight of that. That is not what this chapter is talking about. John had a twofold message. The reason we care about this message because John is a model of the end-time messengers. Though there was one, John the Baptist of course, there will be two witnesses, those two amazing prophets in Jerusalem. I believe there will be thousands and hundreds of thousands of messengers, if not many more, maybe some millions, I do not know, all over the earth who will be in their local area giving expression to this Isaiah 40 calling, this

10 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 10 messenger calling. They will answer the call in their life, in their generation, in their local area. They will answer it. We want to look at what John the Baptist did when he answered it. We want to do that. What he did was call people to repentance. He called people to repent, and he announced the coming of the Lord. When he called, he said, Repent. Come into agreement with God s values. Come into agreement with God s plans. Repent of wrong thinking. You see, wrong thinking leads to wrong feeling which leads to wrong doing. When we think rightly, we feel differently, and we act differently. Right thinking is critical. So when he says to repent, he is not just saying to stop the bad stuff. He is saying to embrace the right things, not just stay away from the negative. Embrace the positive. It is more than just embracing values; it is embracing the plan so we are understanding this remarkable unfolding of God s leadership in the midst of the unique dynamics of intensely positive and intensely negative happening globally at the same time. When the earth is confused, God has His messengers who get what is going on. They have repented of wrong thoughts and wrong values. 1. It is a highway of purity (God s values) and a highway of understanding (God s plans). 2. We know that 40:3 includes preparing a spiritual highway in context to spiritual valleys, mountains, and crooked places because John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy in part by preaching on repentance that addressed spiritual valleys and mountains (Lk. 3:3-14). 3. Agreement with God s values: John called people to repent and live in agreement with God s values His love, purity, humility, generosity, righteousness, etc. (Lk. 3:8-14). Earlier, Isaiah identified this as the Highway of Holiness (35:8). The only way that the Lord dwells with His people in is context to holiness or agreement with His heart. 8 bear fruits worthy of repentance 10 The people asked, What shall we do then? 11 He answered, He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none 12 Then tax collectors said to him, Teacher, what shall we do? 13 And he said to them, Collect no more than what is appointed. 14 The soldiers asked What shall we do? So he said to them, Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages. (Lk. 3:8-14) In Luke 3, John called them to kingdom values. The main one he hit in Luke 3 was generosity. He was talking about economics. You can study that on your own, but as end-time messengers we want to learn from John in the way that John answered the Isaiah 40:3 call and build the spiritual highway. The way he answered that call is the way the end-time messengers will answer it, with the same kind of messaging. 4. Agreement with God s plans: John announced the coming of Jesus in context to a great outpouring of the Spirit and the release of God s judgments associated with His coming. 16 One mightier than I is coming He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. (Lk. 3:16-17) John not only talked about kingdom character and values, he also announced the coming of Jesus. He announced the full power of the Holy Spirit. He announced God s judgments. So when you say announcing the

11 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 11 coming of the Messiah, it also goes with the great end-time revival of power, and it also comes with God intervening in the nations with judgments. All of that is one package together. So John would tell them to have humility. He would tell them to have generosity and love, etc. Then he would tell them that there is going to be an unprecedented salvation event. A Man is coming out of heaven. God is going to be fully Man. The fire of the Spirit is coming, and judgments are going to break out. They were all thinking, Like what are you talking about? It is like the Holy Spirit is saying, End-time generation, take notes because this is the same messaging you will be carrying. So, it is not only building a spiritual highway, it is also comforting Jerusalem, and there are two tracks of the message that are unfolding here. F. A voice: John the Baptist was the voice prophesied by Isaiah (Jn. 1:23). For over 700 years, no one knew who the voice was or in what generation he would speak the message of 40: They said to him, What do you say about yourself? 23 He said: I am The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the LORD, as the prophet Isaiah said. (Jn. 1:22-23) Okay, Isaiah says there is a voice crying in the wilderness. A voice is crying in the wilderness. Now in Isaiah s day, 700 years BC plus he is a little bit more than that, 740 is when he actually started as most of them say but 700 years before Christ, they did not know who this voice was or what it looked like. Again, it is not identified. 1. I assume that Isaiah would have never guessed that the voice referred to a man preaching on repentance about 700 years after Isaiah s ministry was over. John comes on the scene in John 1. They ask, Who are you? Are you the Messiah? He says, No, I am the voice. They ask, The voice? John nods, Yeah, the Isaiah 40:3 voice. They are thinking, Whoa! That is a big statement. 2. I imagine the Pharisees asking him Where was the highway of which Isaiah prophesied? In building a highway by calling people to repent, John introduced the idea of Isaiah s highway also being a spiritual one. It was easier for the Pharisees to reject and criticize John as the voice since John did not do any miracles (Jn. 10:41). 41 Then many came to Him and said, John performed no sign (Jn. 10:41) 3. John was content to be a voice he was not seeking to be a name or to promote his own reputation and honor. He saw himself as a friend of the Bridegroom (Jn. 3:29). 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom s voice 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. (Jn. 3:29-30)

12 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 12 The thing that really, really resonates with me about this is that John was content to be a voice and not be a name. When they came to John in John 3, they said, Hey, more people are following your younger cousin. You have been doing this longer than he has. You are older. He said, I have to decrease. This is not about me. I am not pulling people to me. I am a friend of the Bridegroom. I am trying to get them connected to Him, not to me. So John was so content to be a voice and not be the name, the reputation. He said, If they get connected to Him, I did my job. That is what the friend of the Bridegroom does. John said that was what he was in John 3:29: the friend of the Bridegroom. The friend of the Bridegroom helps the Bride and the Bridegroom come into their embrace, and he gets out of the way. He is like the best man at the wedding. His whole job is to remove all the distractions so the Bride and Bridegroom connect eye to eye and nobody is in the way. That is the friend of the Bridegroom. 4. God is raising up those who will be a voice and not merely an echo. God is raising up messengers today who are not trying to figure out how popular they can be, how many likes or dislikes, or who is or is not for them. They are focused on a whole other thing that is on their mind: they are trying to get people gazing in His eyes to capture the reality of who they are in His eyes. They say, I did my job; I will get out of the way. John was a voice. He was not a name. He was a voice, but not an echo either. What I mean by that. I have used that phrase over the years, Be a voice, not an echo. It is okay to use other people s materials. I have done it all my life. I use ideas from others, but you do not want to be content simply repeating somebody else. You want to feel it. You want it to be real. If it is real in you, then you can use the information. If it is real in you, you can echo for a while, but eventually you want to be a voice and not just an echo. You want it to capture your thinking and dominate your internal conversation with the Lord. That is when you are a voice: when the messaging and the reality is in you at that level. That is what the Lord is raising up right now, voices that will be friends of the Bridegroom. They do not want to be a name. They are not trying to see how big they can get in the eyes of the popularity contest in the Christian world. They are wanting to get people connected to the Bridegroom God. 5. Gabriel prophesied that John the Baptist would turn many to the Lord (Lk. 1:16). In what sense did John turn many to God and prepare people for the Lord? Scripture only identifies two of John s disciples that followed Jesus Andrew and John (Jn. 1:40, many consider the unnamed disciple to be John). There were only 120 people who made it to the upper room after John and Jesus ministry (Acts 1). 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He [John the Baptist] will also go before Him [Jesus] to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Lk. 1:16-17) G. Crying out: John the Baptist refused to be silent even when rejected by the leaders of his nation. The religious leaders said John had a demon (Mt. 11:18) and Herod put him to death (Mt. 14:10). 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. (Mt. 11:18) 3 For Herod put him in prison for the sake of Herodias 4 Because John had said to him, It is not lawful for you to have her 10 So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. (Mt. 14:3-10)

13 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 13 It says that he is crying out in the wilderness. I like those words, crying out. It is a voice that is crying out. The reason that this touches me is that John refused to be silent. Crying out is cool as long as everybody in the crowd thinks what you are doing is really cool. Then it is like, Wow, isn t that gal or that guy passionate? Aren t they passionate? Isn t that amazing! they are saying. The crying out is not measured in the context where people are affirming you. For John, the crying out was measured when the religious leaders of the nation turned against him. They said of him in Matthew 11:18, He has a demon, as in He is demonized. They did not say he was a cult leader. They said he was demonized. He is full-on demonized. This man is dangerous to the kingdom of God. That is what the top Bible teachers in the land said about John the Baptist. Then Herod said, If you do not stop interfering with my sexuality and practice, if you do not be quiet, I will kill you. I do not know if the conversation went that way, but he was killed because in the cultural wars of his day he would not be silent. In the cultural wars today, many believers are getting more and more silent. They want to be messengers, but they want to be messengers in a crowd of people that think they are amazing messengers. I like being in a crowd of people that think I m amazing. You guys like me, right? Say, I like you; you like me. This is not where it works right here. This is cool. I like this. In all of that I was just joking. My point is: this is not where it counts. It counts when we go out there and in tenderness, yet in boldness and clarity, we hold the line. All the cultural wars that are increasing, increasing where the Word of God is being marginalized and set aside more and more, yet leaders in the Body of Christ are getting more and more silent. They are drawing back. John the Baptist went the other direction. He went crying out! I do not mean he was belligerent that is not the idea or obnoxious. I believe he was bold, clear, tender, humble, and he would not back away under pressure. So the nation called him demonized, and Herod killed him because of his stance on morality. He refused to back away. H. Make straight: The Lord s messengers make the message straight or clear by removing the ambiguity. They are to boldly, clearly, and tenderly address God s values in speaking to individuals and in context of the cultural wars. For example, John rebuked Herod for immorality (Mt 14:3-10) and warned the people of covetousness (Lk. 3:8-14). Isaiah highlighted four aspects of walking on the spiritual highway. They reinforce the call to holiness and the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. Because these four aspects include issues that anger and offend people, it is common for preachers not to address them in a straightforward way. Here was the mandate: he is to make straight the way of the Lord. Now, we know the highway has already been introduced a couple chapters earlier, Isaiah 35. It is a highway of holiness. This idea of holiness is kind of out of fashion in the Body of Christ today. Holiness is not out of fashion in the kingdom of God. From God s point of view, holiness is the only way the highway works, when people agree with God about lifestyle, values, and sexuality, and their life choices come into agreement with Him. It is a highway of holiness, but it is more than a highway of holiness, it is a highway of understanding too. It is agreeing with what He is doing, not just the values that He is calling us to. John the Baptist was, and the endtime messengers are, to make the highway straight. In other words, clear. Make it straight, not ambiguous. Do not say, Well, you know, just love the Lord anyway you want to. The Lord just dah-da-da-da-dah so everybody is happy and, you know, blah-blah-blah. Ambiguity, no. Political correctness is not the goal. I mean you do not want to pick a fight, but you do not want to be silenced or muffled into this vanilla ambiguity of political correctness where the Word of God is being thrown into the streets across the earth and trampled on,

14 Session 13 The Forerunner Message in Isaiah 40 PAGE 14 even by believers. Make it straight, Isaiah said. Make it clear. Remove the gray areas. Be bold. Be tender, but be bold. Be straight forward. Again, it is a highway of purity and it is a highway of understanding. Now he is going to give four aspects of this highway. Though for this passage, Isaiah 40, this is a spiritual highway, actually these very things will happen when the physical highway is made as well. These will have a physical counterpart when that eschatological, millennial highway is built about which Isaiah has eight or nine passages. Again, I have not actually counted the number, but the list is about that long. Now all four of these areas of the highway that we are going to call this emotional and spiritual life, all four of these are politically incorrect if you address them straightforwardly. When I look at all four of these and what they mean, I ask, Lord, what man or woman in the kingdom of God will be straightforward on these issues? Because, if they are, they will lose part of their following. If they are after a following, they will not build a highway with these four elements in it. 1. Every valley shall be exalted: There are valleys or low areas in our lives emotionally and spiritually that need to be healed and brought up. This includes areas where we have wrong thinking in accepting a low view of God and of our spiritual identity. This includes emotional low spots where rejection, condemnation, and inferiority dominate our heart and mind. The Lord wants us to resist wrong thinking and replace it with the truth of who we are in Christ. First it says that every valley must be exalted. Now the valley, again it was spiritual and it was emotional in John the Baptist s day. There are the low areas in our life. This is more of the easy one to address, but still we tend to do it a little bit and then kind of move out of the way. We don t want to get too into somebody s life, too into their stuff. The low areas of people s lives emotionally and spiritually need to be healed, God would say, I want to bring those valleys up. They include wrong thinking in accepting a low view of God and a low view of who they are in God. It includes the emotional low spots. There are many believers who are just absolutely trapped in rejection, condemnation, and an inferiority complex. A negation of everything positive, it hits them and bounces off. The Lord would say, I want to build that highway up. They are going to be on the highway partnering with Me. They have to agree with Me even about themselves and about their own life. They have to agree with what I say about them. The Lord wants us to resist wrong thinking and replace it with right thinking. That is the more popular topic to address, again as long as you do not get too personal with an individual. As long as you just keep it public and generic, they will not be bothered by it. You talk to somebody up close and personal about these issues, and they will not like that at all. 2. Every mountain shall be brought low: There are high things or proud things in our thinking and emotional life that need to be brought down such as drawing undue attention to ourselves, manipulating situations to gain honor, or being defensive in refusing to accept correction. Well, the next one is far more politically incorrect. Every mountain all the high and proud things bring it down. There are the high things that need to be brought down. It is pride, which we all are born with, that we all come by naturally. I ll just give three examples out of a hundred: drawing undue attention to ourselves. Manipulating situations to gain honor. Pouting, complaining, pushing your way until you get your way. Defensiveness when you are corrected, on and on and on. Again you can talk about that publicly a little bit, but you do not want to get personal on that one at all.